While thousands gathered at the gates of Fort Benning for the November Vigil, updates from Honduras were read from the stage. A delegation of SOA Watch activists was on the ground in Honduras, to observe the presidential elections, which took place on November 24, 2013. Here is the report:

The SOA Watch delegation to Honduras observed numerous
irregularities and problems during the elections and vote counting
process that cause us not to trust the electoral results released by
Honduras' Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). In additon to what we directly observed, the control of the TSE by the ruling
parties provided opportunity for significant manipulation of the
results and fraud after the polls closed and information was
transmitted to the TSE. Two new parties, LIBRE and PAC refuse to recognize the TSE's
results and both report significant discrepancy between the results they received from the voting stations and the results reported by the TSE.

The TSE has reported that the ruling party's candidate, Juan Orlando Hernandez of the National Party, is leading LIBRE's Xiomara Castro. The National Party is currently in control of the government and LIBRE is a new political party created out of resistance to the 2009 military coup that removed President Zelaya and unleashed widespread repression across the country. The Anti-Corruption Party (PAC), whose presidential candidate is Salvador Nasralla, has also challenged the TSE's results. LIBRE and PAC are calling for the TSE to release results voting
table by voting table so that they can be verified.

Listed below are a few examples of the irregularities and problems that our small delegation
observed. The Honduras Solidarity Network also has a preliminary report on the elections here.

In El Paraiso, a woman who was signing her name in the voter rolls
as part of the voting process, reported that her uncle's name and
photo was listed near hers with a signature
indicating he had voted. He has been dead since 1998. She
found him again on the voter list posted outside the polls and
pointed him out to one of our observers as shown in the picture
posted here.

At one of the tables in Danli, after the votes were counted the
sum of the votes for the different parties did not match the number
of votes cast. The vote counting was repeated, and
again the sum of votes tallied for the different
parties did not match the total number of votes indicating that there was
a problem in how the votes were being tallied as they were called out. It is
notable that one person was tallying the votes and much of
the time nobody else was watching how this person was marking the votes. According to
an international observer who was keeping an independent tally as the
votes were called out, when the total was announced, LIBRE was short
7 votes and the National Party had an extra 7 votes.

At the largest voting station in Tegucigalpa, the 35 voting tables
were placed haphazardly, not at all in numerical order with some
rooms holding two tables. This made it difficult to find one's room,
causing at least one person to conclude that the voting table he had
searched the school for didn't exist. During the counting of the
votes, people started screaming in the corridors, others were playing
soccer in the center, and there was so much noise it was extremely
hard to concentrate. Only two people from each table were allowed to
enter the scanner room, despite the fact that the rule book said each
party could have a representative to watch the vote transmission.
TSE officials in the scanner room did not check the identities of
those bringing vote reports (actas) and with tons of people entering
and exiting the school and the table members not wearing credentials,
anybody could have brought a vote report to the scanner room for transmisson.

At one voting table, table members twice caught the person
recording the votes marking votes for LIBRE in the PAC column. When
this person finished recording the presidential votes, the sum of the
votes for each candidate did not match the total number of votes
cast. In other voting tables, the Congressional counting, involving
208 candidates, and the Mayor vote counting, was being done
simultanously, making it nearly imposible for party representatives
to watch if the votes in each race were being correctly recorded. At
the same time, still other table members were signing ballots even though the polls were closed.

At another voting table, the table representative for the PINU
party was openly speaking out in favor of the National Party, saying if Juan Orlando didn't win she would leave
the country, and visibly coordinating with National Party representatives. Another table member explained that PINU sells their table credentials to the National Party, and that the woman with the PINU credentials was really with the National Party, stacking the
table in favor the National Party. The PINU representative smiled and
said “shhh.” The selling of table credentials by small parties to the dominant parties to give them disproportionate representation during the counting process is widespread.

At another voting location in Tegucigalpa, there were no LIBRE
representatives at the scanner where vote results were being sent to
the TSE and the National Party was reported to be controlling the
scanner.

At yet another voting center in Tegucigalpa, observers received
reports that a man with a pistol was entering rooms and rumors were being circulated that Juan Orlando of the National Party had contracted the gangs and if LIBRE won the vote count at that center the gangs would be sent in to
the voting center to create a disaster.

Another issue is the financial incentives used
by the National Party to get people to vote for them. For instance, just outside a large voting center in Danli, the National Party was
distributing its “La Cachureca” discount card, shown in the photo at right. This card provides
people who register with the National Party discounts for cell phone
use, medical care, and other needs. The International Federation for
Human Rights reported on how the La Cachureca card is used to shift
votes to the National Party. We also have received reports of a
government program that is supposed to provide aid to people in poverty being
manipulated by the National Party, which is currently in power. One
woman denounced that she had received one of these
checks before the election that was dated the Tuesday after the
election; she was told that there would only be funds to cash it if
the National Party won.

We are extremely concerned about statements by the US State
Department that observers found the process to be "generally
transparent." There are reports by numerous international
observers of dead people able to vote, vote buying, and problems with
vote counting, not to mention that the TSE has selectively tallied
the vote reports while leaving many votes uncounted. The above examples is just part of what our delegation saw; delegations across the country reported fraud, including vote buying, which is described in the Honduras Solidarity Network preliminary report. The State
Department's statement goes on to encourage Hondurans to "resolve
election disputes peacefully through established legal processes"
but fails to mention the fact that the ruling parties control the
highly politicized Honduran justice system. Just a few months ago,
the National party's presidential candidate, in his role as president
of the Congress, led an extremely irregular process to name a new
Attorney General in the middle of the night, stacking the Justice
Department in his favor just prior to the elections. Prior to that,
he also led Congress in the firing of 4 Supreme Court justices who
had gone against his interests, and replaced them with 4 new Supreme
Court justices.

Given the consolidation of power by the ruling parties in Honduras
since the 2009 coup and the extreme militarization and climate of
human rights abuses – including the murders of two LIBRE party
activists returning from electoral training the night before the
elections – we call on the international community to be vigilant
to the unfolding situation in Honduras.